Battlefield 3 Runs Lower Than 720p on Consoles

Heads up console players. DICE has just revealed that Battlefield 3 runs at 1280x704 resolution on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Do the math and it's 16 horizontal lines short of true 720p. Close to 720p, but not quite there.

So how will Battlefield 3 make up for those 16 missing lines? Unlike other games that run at a lower resolution, Battlefield 3 won't be upscaled. Instead, there will be two 8 pixel high black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

DICE rendering architect Johan Anderson explained via Twitter that if the image was scaled, it would "just ruin the picture." According to Anderson, removing the 16 lines of resolution increases performance and saves memory.

While both Microsoft and Sony stipulate that games support at least 720p resolution, many games, including Halo and Call of Duty, actually run at a lower resolution and are then upscaled, for performance issues. Now there's something you might not have known.